The Greening of America
Charles A. Reich, 1970
★ 3.60 from 388 ratings on Goodreads
A Yale law professor argues that the counterculture's change of consciousness, not politics, is the real revolution remaking America. Reich writes like a law professor turned believer: calm argument, plain sentences, and a steady current of hope that the young are changing how people live.
Feels like hope, dread and unease. About freedom, society and identity.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you're drawn to early counterculture writing and want to see how one thoughtful insider framed it. Keep in mind that many readers now find the hippie optimism naive and the predicted revolution dated, so it reads more as a period document than a forecast.
Why read it
It gives you a clear, earnest argument about why personal change might matter more than politics, and a vivid window into what the counterculture hoped for.
A page from the book
A revolution that begins in the self and refuses to pick up a weapon.
There is a revolution coming. It will not be like revolutions of the past. It will originate with the individual and with culture, and it will change the political structure only as its final act. It will not require violence to succeed, and it cannot be successfully resisted by violence. It is now spreading with amazing rapidity, and already our laws, institutions and social structure are changing in consequence. It promises a higher reason, a more human community, and a new and liberated individual. Its ultimate creation will be a new and enduring wholeness and beauty — a renewed relationship of man to himself, to other men, to society, to nature, and to the land.This is the revolution of the new generation. What readers say
Readers are split: some found the book formative and inspiring, especially its critique of corporate conformity and call for personal change; others found its hippie optimism naive, dated, and disappointing, with the predicted cultural revolution failing to arrive.
Charles A. Reich.Reich was a Yale law professor; The Greening of America became a bestseller and made 'Consciousness III' a shorthand for the counterculture's turn inward.
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Questions readers ask
- Is The Greening of America for me?
- You may like it if you're drawn to early counterculture writing and want to see how one thoughtful insider framed it. Keep in mind that many readers now find the hippie optimism naive and the predicted revolution dated, so it reads more as a period document than a forecast.
- What is The Greening of America like?
- Reich writes like a law professor turned believer: calm argument, plain sentences, and a steady current of hope that the young are changing how people live. Feels like hope, dread and unease. About freedom, society and identity.
- What should I read after The Greening of America?
- If you liked The Greening of America, try Revolution from Within (Gloria Steinem), John Adams (David McCullough) and The Fire Next Time (James Baldwin).
A taste of the feed
How does a nation’s destiny hinge entirely upon the ego of its citizens?
I’ve learned from these events that self-esteem plays as much a part in the destiny of nations as it does in the lives of individuals; that self-hatred leads to the need either to dominate or to be dominated; that citizens who refuse to obey anything but their own conscience can transform their countries; in short, that self-esteem is the basis of any real democracy.
Revolution from Within · Gloria Steinem
A revolution begins in minds, long before the first shot.
As to the history of the revolution, my ideas may be peculiar, perhaps singular. What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760–1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington.
John Adams · David McCullough
The monuments we raise so we never have to look at death.
Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, which is the only fact we have.
The Fire Next Time · James Baldwin
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